The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848Doheny, Michael
History
The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848
Doheny, Michael
Ireland -- History -- Rising of 1848; Young Ireland Party -- History; Young Ireland movement
incantations of the weird sisters could not produce a greater panic.
Chairs tumbled in every direction, and their occupiers fled the room,
leaving myself and my friend ample space to enjoy the joke and the
champagne in undisturbed quiet.
I have nothing further to relate in connection with myself. Paris
appeared to me clothed with a grandeur, a glory, and a beauty,
infinitely surpassing every description of them I had ever read or
heard. Standing in any commanding spot surrounded by the monuments of
her splendour and magnificence, upon each of which the genius of the
land shed its immortal lustre, one feels coerced to the conviction that
the high command and abiding destiny of France must be equally
imperishable. But these considerations belong not to my story, and I
renounce the idea of commemorating the sensations of gratified pride
which that gorgeous capital awakened in my bosom. Her architecture and
her art, her memorials of glory, and the triumphs of her progress,
require to be scanned by the eye and portrayed by the ability of
artistic genius. I must content myself with preserving a delighted
recollection of the French metropolis which no scene or circumstance,
possible in life can ever efface. The companion of all my hazards in
Ireland, whom I again joined in Paris, more than shared my enthusiasm.
He spent all his days wandering among the galleries of the Louvre or the
statues of Versailles, forgetting in the sublime presence of their
unmatched _chefs d'ouvres_ all the shame and perils of the past. I hope
he may be induced to give the result of his long examinations and fond
reveries to the public.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 12: "Alice and Uua."]
[Footnote 13: This may be a harsh and unjust opinion; if so, no one
could regret it more than myself. In any case I wish to disclaim the
idea of making a charge against the body of the Roman Catholic clergy,
to some of whose members it applies. I yet fully believe that the great
majority of the priesthood would willingly die with the rest of their
countrymen in struggling for the liberty of their common home. Even of
those who acted against us with such deadly success, I am sure some were
influenced by pure and honourable motives: there were others, however,
whose conduct the noblest motives would fail to justify, or even
extenuate.]
[Footnote 14: I hope my friend "Desmond" (a true poet and genuine
Irishman, whom God long preserve) will allow me to borrow his "graceful
spirit people" to elevate to poetical dignity the otherwise unattractive
and straggling waters of Lough Lua. It is near the lone and lovely
passes of Ceimeneagh, which his genius has invested with graceful
immortality, and his
"Children of the earth and sea."
may be sometimes tempted to lave therein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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